Characters, Hereditary and Acquired. 155 



which co-operates with natural selection, by playing 

 the subordinate role which was assigned by Darwin 

 to the principles of Lamarck. 



Finally, let it be noted that no part of the fore- 

 going argument is to be regarded as directed against 

 the principle of what Professor Weismann calls "con- 

 tinuity." On the contrary, it appears to be self-evident 

 that this principle must be accepted in some degree 

 or another by every one, whether Darwinians, Neo- 

 Darwinians, Lamarckians, Neo-Lamarckians, or even 

 the advocates of special creation. Yet, to hear or 

 to read some of the followers of Weismann, one 

 can only conclude that, prior to his publications on 

 the subject, they had never thought about it at all. 

 These naturalists appear to suppose that until then 

 the belief of Darwinians was, that there could be 

 no hereditary " continuity " between any one organic 

 type and another (such, for instance, as between 

 Ape and Man), but that the whole structure of any 

 given generation must be due to "gemmules" 

 or "somato-plasm," derived exclusively from the 

 preceding generation. Nothing can show more 

 ignorance, or more thoughtlessness, with regard to 

 the whole subject. The very basis of the general 

 theory of evolution is that there must always have 

 been a continuity in the material substance of 

 heredity since the time when the process of evolution 

 began ; and it was not reserved for our generation. 

 or even for our century, to perceive the special 

 nature of this material substance in the case of sexual 

 organisms. No, the real and the sole question, where 

 Weismann's theory of heredity is concerned, is simply 

 this — Are we to hold that this material substance 



